So much for your private Emails: Congress votes to allow government to continue spying on U.S. citizens

Comment by Jim Campbell, Citizen Journalist and Patriot.Privacy advocates as well as most people with a functioning brain, will have a problem with this one, even though “the right” to privacy was never written into the Constitution.

Photo via Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

The fact that H.R.5949, FISA Reauthorization; PASSED: 73-23 should make one wonder which side of the plate are those Republicans who voted yea batting?

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it, I’m J.C. and I approve this message.

The Senate on Friday voted in favor of extending for five years the FISA Amendments Act, which allows the government to monitor American citizens who communicate with foreign citizens when terrorism is believed to be involved.As part of the monitoring program, the government can get court orders — which do not require probable cause, like typical search warrant — to access citizens’ phone calls as well as electronic messages such as emails, provided there is evidence those communications involve “foreign intelligence information.”

Individual FISA orders can cast a huge net, targeting large groups of people at a time, according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital privacy rights watchdog. (More below)

Extension of the FISA Amendments Act was passed by the Senate on a vote of 73-23 after four separate attempts by lawmakers to amend the bill were voted down Thursday. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), shown above, was a supporter of the bill.

Among the defeated amendments were a proposal to shorten the time the law could stand without review, an attempt to get the National Security Agency to publish how many Americans it has under surveillance (information that hasn’t been made available), an attempt to release courts’ opinions on the law’s legality and an amendment that would have tacitly established electronic communications as receiving protection under the Fourth Amendment.

The House had already passed an unamended version of the bill in September. Had the Senate approved any of the proposed changes, it would have forced a legislative confrontation between the two chambers which could potentially have resulted in FISA expiring before an extension was passed — all reasons cited by extension advocates in the Senate.

The FISA Amendements Act was set to expire on Dec. 31, which remains the case until the extension is signed into law by President Barack Obama. His signature is all but guaranteed, as he previously said he “strongly” supported the House bill, which is identical to the version passed by the Senate.

FISA, first passed in 1978, was extensively overhauled in 2008 to grant Bush administration officials retroactive immunity for a federal wiretapping program authorized without congressional approval, details of which were first uncovered by the New York Times in 2005. Since that report, several former NSA whistleblowers have come out against FISA, claiming the government is essentially using it to create a vast database of American citizens’ personal communications in the name of counter-terrorism.

6 responses to “So much for your private Emails: Congress votes to allow government to continue spying on U.S. citizens”

So Big Brother is still on the hunt for what? Why not start spying on the illegals emails and maybe known sympathizers for terrorist organizations? No, they are probably too busy monitoring the emails of people who send pro Romney, pro gun laws, or anti Obama emails around. Now those are the folks to be scared of! The rascals!

This man, Obama, and his pals are draining us of all that we possess and stealing our potential to recover and bloom as a free nation. The Republicans are right in there afraid of losing their government seats and thus bowing to the outrageous demands and executive orders of a fake president. Little by little he is doing exactly what he promised himself before the first tenure..to turn our nation into a government dependent, controlled socialist country in preparation for the takeover of his allies, the muslim brotherhood and islam.
I am so disgusted by the Obama supporters I can no longer excuse them for their ignorance or hardcore adherence to what they think is democracy. People that are more concerned with political correctness and have become brainwashed into praising the venom in the whitehouse need to be shunned as traitors . They are part of the problem and are contributing in their simple ignorance to the destruction of our country. Maybe God can forgive them, but I can not. This is not complex reasoning..when someone seeks to remove our liberties, denies our constitution as valid, demeans our bible, and secretes his own history, will not salute our flag, a light should go on! But nooooooooo, the sheep are strong in their resolve to remain stupid , loyal and continue to justify anti-American behavior in the leader of this so far free nation. I will not be seeing anymore lauding or praising of the Obamination on my facebook or private messenger devices, because I have the right to delete them, and I will. This is not just a political difference, it is a threat to our entire system of government and individual rights of citizens at stake for generations to come.

Why is this president and congress/senate waging war against all Americans?? We have done nothing – we are not the terrorists – Obama is the enemy and he is the one sleeping with the terrorists not the Americans. So one should question the people they vote for and replace them with honest people. I find it amazing that this entire congress and senate will follow the will of a communist.

Sharon, unfortunately it’s a much bigger agenda and those in control are just following orders. I know it’s hard to get your mind around, but you can research this agenda on your own. I was pretty naive about all of this until fairly recently. To make matters worse, if we try to voice an opinion or say anything about Obama, the liberals just about cut at our knees. I have been blatantly attacked on Facebook, and I wasn’t even making extremely conservative posts, just suggesting there is more going on than there appears. I own a business, so it’s a bit of a dilemma about how outspoken to be. I agree with you that all this is pretty ‘amazing.’ It’s so sad and tragic and based on control and greed. So you would think there would be some of them who are not in on this. But I can only guess that they have been brainwashed and/or threatened. Let’s just hope we can save the 2nd amendment. I believe that is our only hope.